Buffer.



- PATENTED MAY 19, 1903;

LOVELY & P.' BATGHDER.

BUFFER APPLICATION FILED JAN. 14, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

in: Nonms versus no. PHOTOLITHOH wan-Moron, 0 cv 2 is a central longitudinal section of our de- UNITE STATES Patented May 19, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.-

BUFFER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 728,480, dated May 19, 1903. Applicatioh filed January 14, feet, Serial No. 138,976. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN H. .LovELY and PETER BATOHDER, of Havel-hill, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Buffers, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the'drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to that class of buffing devices which are employed in buffing the shanks of shoes next the heel, and more particularly to a form of bufiing device in which a disk of abrasive material isheld at its middle portion on the surface of a circular pad.

The object of our invention is to produce a bufling device of this character in which a yielding pad is provided with a yielding support, so that the operator is unlikely to press the abrasive disk against the work with suffi cient force to scratch the work or to unduly wear away the abrasive material of the disk.

A further object of our invention is to provide ameans whereby the abrasive disk may be securely held in position on th'e face of the pad, and yet the disks may be removed and replaced with facility.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a buffingmachine provided with our invention.- Fig.

vice. Fig. 3 is a front elevation thereof.

The main shaft a is journaled in a bearing b and is driven by a pulley c. A socket is formed in one end of said, shaft, in which the shank d of the pad-holder is secured by suitable means, as bya set-screw e. Said shank is provided with a rigid circular clamping-head d, which is preferably integral therewith and has a fiat face. A disk f, of stifi leather, is centrally arranged upon the face of said head 01, said disk being of greater diameter than said face and adapted to yield to a certain extent when pressure is applied thereto and to thereby constitute a flexible support for a flat circular pad g, preferably of soft felt, which is arranged on the opposite side of said support from the head (1'. The edge of said pad is beveled or tapered towardthe rear side thereof, so that its greatest diameter is at its face side. A disk h, of abrasive material,

as emery-paper, is arranged'on the face side clamping-bolt 2' passes through said disk,pad, and support and is screwed into said recess; The outer end of said bolt is provided with a circular clamping-disk It, of metal, whichis' j "j 1;: rigidly secured thereto or is integral there-f with and is of substantially the same diameter as the face of the clamping member or head 01. Said disk it is slightly convex on its front side and concave on its rear side and is made as thin as possible with a sharp edge, so that the whole disk will not protrude beyond the surface of the abrasive disk more than is absolutely essential. It will be apparent that when the clamping-bolt t is passed through the central apertures in said abrasive disk, pad, and support and is tightly screwed into the screw-threaded socket d" of the shank (1 said parts will be firmly clamped together between the disklc and head d and held from rotation with respect to the shaft a. As the clamping-disk k is convex in form, the only portion thereof which engages the abrasive disk is that at and adjacent its edge, and asthe clamping-disk and the head (1' are of substantially the same diameter the rigid support formed by said head enables the clamping-disk to firmly engage the abrasive disk at points approximately midway between .its center and its edge.

In employing a bufier of this general character to buff the shanks of shoes the only actual working surface of the abrasive covering is the portion thereof within about an inch fromits edge, and therefore the clampingdisk is made of the greatest diameter possible without interfering with the actual working surface of the abrasive disk. As the operator presses the work against the outer portion of the abrasive disk the pad or cushion -g and support f will yield to a certain extent,

so that the edge portion of the abrasive disk against which the work is pressed will assume a convex form or will conform to the surface of the work which is pressed against it, so that our device may be made to perform the same work as that which may be performed by the well-known convex pad. Our device provides a support or holder for the abrasive sheet which enables the operator to more readily control the force with which the abrasive sheet is pressed against the work, so that the sheet will work to the best advantage that is, with a more rigid pad or support for the sheet the Work is more likely to be pressed against the sheet with too much force, so that the abrasive material will be worn from the sheet more rapidly in addition to the fact that the surface which is bufied is more likely to be scratched or poorly finished. Moreover, on account of the flexibility of the pad in our device the abrasive cover will engage the greater portion of the surface of a. convex shank at one time, thereby enabling the operator to buff shoes more rapidly than when a pad 'is used which is compressible, but not flexible. By having the pad beveled on its edge toward the rear we are enabled to bolt the surface of the shank of a shoe up to the breast of the heel, the angle between the face of the pad and its beveled surface being less than a right angle.

To substitute a fresh disk h for a worn one, the operator grasps the pad and unserews the Y bolt t, with the disks, from the holder 01. The

bolt is then slipped out of the disks and pad, a new abrasive disk is slipped on over the bolt, together with the pad and supportingdisk, and then the bolt is screwed into the holder, so that the parts will be clamped together.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A buffer comprising a circular, flexible pad having an abrasive disk on its face, a flexible supporting-disk for the opposite side of said pad from its face, a rigid, circular clamping member at the opposite side of said supporting-disk from said pad, a rigid clamping-disk engaging the face of said abrasive disk, means for drawing said clamping devices together, which passes through the centers of said disksand pad, and means for rotating said parts about an axis which coincides with the centers thereof, substantially as described.

2. A buffer com prising a holder, a circular flexible pad having an abrasive disk on its face, a rigid circular clamping member borne by said holder, a flexible supporting-disk between said pad and clamping member and of less diameter than said pad and greater diameter than said member, and a clampingdisk having a stem passing centrally through said parts and engaging said member, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. LOVELY. PETER BATOHDER. Witnesses:

LoUIs H. HARRIMAN, H. B. DAVIS. 

